Impression, Perspective, Monad

The art of sound is manifest in the experience of listener and composer alike.

And these are the important things, in and of themselves: individual experience and the art.

Drawing Breath

One does not seek only the fulfillment of expectations in the arts and attain experience of their virtues.

The sound arts, nonetheless, offer the opportunity to comply with the expectations of a wide range of audiences that are culturally conditioned to desire the predictable.

It is also possible to compose to enhance the total experience of the listener, and to awaken this through the inner ear.

Break Through in Grey Room

Subjection to immediacy obstructs equanimity, restricts perception, and hinders communication of meaning and value.

The imposition of instantaneous direct involvement with media upon consciousness narrows and distorts perspective, yet it is most often a matter of choice and habit perpetuated by technological culture and its proponents.  As such it is within the power of one's will to determine the extent of its necessity and desirability, given cognizance of the reality and the self-aware capacity to call it into question analytically.  Certainly this suggests the virtue of direct perception, as well as that of art in opposition to illusion.

Consider the effect of the sounds of cicadas at night on the people of the late prehistoric ages.

Startle, Settle

Become alert to the stir of sounds.

Perceive the apparently random character of disconnected sounds, widely separated and unrelated.

But this is narrow perception compounded by ignorance of the nature of things.  Attend to the rise and fall, the mingling and coalescing, the unity, dispersal, and dissolution that, seen and heard and sensed as change, is reality's essence.   Time means nothing in such unity as this, and nothing is arbitrary on this scale.

 As the listener may bring to realization, the composer may imagine and bring into being.

Sound Settings

In natural conditions the listener perceives the whole of the sonic environs and distinguishes its separate elements.

Accordingly, elements of sound composition may include producing representations of various sources, directions, and distances, equal in effect to the work's essential auditory structural components.

Even as recordings, such pieces as these do not lend themselves to superficial, immediate grasp and interpretation; they contribute, rather, to establishing long-term processes of active listening, passive hearing, and expansion of meaning.

Remote Sounds in Landscapes and Interiors

Causes in time past unfold now in events yet to be.

Sense the aural character of the moment in motion, trace its origins, hear its approaching outcomes.

This may not be music, but something uncanny; familiar, yet unknown.

Proximity and Correlation

Whether subjected to sounds or immersed in them by choice, the effects are tangible.

If the superficial and sensational are believed desirable, the mind will gravitate toward such things, find them in abundance, and access them easily.  But this is the province of narrow perspective.

A forward-thinking frame of mind demands much more of experience, and will vigorously exert all the efforts necessary to realize the fullness of life on a larger scale.

In the arts, it is imperative to create that experience.

Speculative Music Structures

The composer who proposes artistic works of a different order than those in common currency must, like Blake, be prepared to create a system suitable for these productions.

Speculation must be engaged in concrete terms and proved, often over prolonged periods, with patience and painstaking diligence.

As to my perspective, the composer determines conditions, defines limits, engages possibility and opportunity, then manipulates, shapes, and releases sounds into what become the environments that tones and gestures themselves create.

Gesture, Art, Sound

As speech imparts attitude, so clarity, volume, and texture of sound conveys it through the total effect of tone, with its combinations and juxtapositions serving to attract and direct the listener's attention.

A state of being at once contemplative and perceptually lucid will not be brought into being by the coarse artistic gesture, nor will it yield to such without reason.   Elevation of consciousness is a demanding goal, and the cultivation of mind and equanimity an arduous task, but these are worthy and virtuous aims for artist, listener, and composer alike.

Waves of Sound and Thought

Every listener is different; every sound is uniquely experienced.

Mood and attitude impact listening, as listening engages idea and emotional state of mind.

Thank You.

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Being in Reality

Sound compositions constructed by placement of auditory imagery neither coerce attention nor yield to expectations.

In such conditions the listener is released from subjection to immediacy and the trifling ideas and events in common currency associated, consciously or not, with generic musical forms and their cultural settings.

These are essentially modern sound arrangements that welcome deeper thought, composure, and presence of mind.

Sweep

The sophisticated listener is generally aware of the elements of Western music and the history of its development, along with the evolution through creative synthesis of numerous genre forms.  There may also be, perhaps, some knowledge of archaic styles, non-Western sound compositions, and diverse cultural contexts related to musical ceremony and ritual.  This information can be acquired by experience and academic studies as well.

But all this is "given" in terms of the appreciation of music.  It is the standard norm in understanding, and the accepted received wisdom.

Far less often encountered in regard to the sound arts is an attitude of questioning and curiosity, and speculation regarding other possible interpretations and applications of auditory phenomena that may suggest other purposes and aesthetically pleasing experiences is rare.  These are simple questions:

Why is this the state and order of things?  What else might there be of equal or greater moment and value?

Yet, absent this spirit of inquiry, there is only stasis.

Sound Composition as Unfolding

Sounds as they occur in everyday environments are shaped by continually changing forces.

Perception of these sounds most often takes the forms of passive hearing and active listening in the course of movement through various activities, and is of an essential, primal nature.

Sound Forms in Motion

Things rise and fall, gather together, disperse, and reform as diverse elements come and go, bringing about changing atmospheres and conditions.

Listening perception in environmental or spatial contexts suggests arrangements of aural forms and events according to a different order than those structured in musical terms, reflecting separate and distinct aspects of beauty and interest as well.

Semblances

The reality of media is that of imagery.  These are representations of forms and concepts.

Such ideas, particularly those of a visual and auditory nature, do not supersede the phenomena of existence, but rather illustrate various aspects of experience according to a broad spectrum of artistic perspectives.  Of these, some will enhance perception and understanding while others intentionally obfuscate or politicize their subjects.

As an artist, I seek lucidity, clarity, and directness; as a composer, I want the listener to hear with a sense of uplifted spirits, in touch with the inner ear of imagination.

Imagery and Mind

Verbal and sonic imagery contribute to cultural vocabulary.

Words and phrases are replete with associations, as are sounds and tone qualities of sounds.

Storm and roar, blood and thunder, the cool silences, whispering desert winds, murmuring waters, echoes of nightfall.  Context delivers cliche or evokes archetype, and accordingly both listener and composer contribute perceptions that illuminate effect and meaning.

Artifacts, Essences

Art does not embrace Time with impunity.

Music attached to particular social phenomena becomes dated, takes on nostalgic associations, and loses its original intensity and impact as culture moves beyond the range of its influences.

Detached from the temporal, classic metaphor remains vivid in poetry and prose, light and spatial qualities captured in the visual arts elevate the viewer's sensibilities, and sounds designed as lucid colorings and shadings of atmospheres retain their vitality in the inner ear.

Cultural and Personal Perception

There is no lack of music for entertainment and relaxation.

Instead, the listener does not find a great deal of music intended to enhance lucid, alert thought and creativity.  This is because music, for the most part, is considered a diversion, and it is created with that function in mind; the rhythms, melodies, and even the instrumentation that define music attract and divert the attention, rather than enhance it.  It is a self-evident fact, yet it is also true that a sound environment is generally preferable to one that is low in listening stimulation.

My goals as composer and producer are to create sonic atmospheres in which work, thought, study, reading and writing, and contemplative reflection may be enjoyed without distraction and demands being placed upon the listener, allowing the individual greater control of the environment and the activities that take place within it.

Creative Instinct

Power does not rest with the artist, but with the work itself.

The artistic gesture comes from within, and will not be suppressed.

Atmospheres in Transformation

Stillness, birds and insects in sun and heat, distant train, then wind stirring, brief showers, and the sounds of wildlife, children playing, and motor traffic.

Sound events like these form a basis for compositions and arrangements that reflect metaphoric and symbolic musical gesture, but remain for the most part in opposition to what is generally understood to be music.

Yet it is simple to understand, and its beauty speaks for itself.